Tag Archives: vacation

Graduation, moving, new jobs, family visits, and other big adventures

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NOTE: This post has been a draft for a few weeks, so it’s a little outdated. I was waiting until I could get the pictures the right way, but I still haven’t figured out and I guess something’s better than nothing, right? So sorry for the big lack of updates, the out-of-date post, and the sideways pictures. Hope you love us anyway!

Sorry for falling behind in the posts! Life has been busy. Isn’t it always? But really, life lately has been more-than-normally busy with some pretty big events: graduation, moving out, finding a house, moving in, and travel.

Josh graduated in April with a bachelor’s and a master’s in Information Systems at BYU. And did I mention that he was the Masters of Information Systems student of the year? :) Seriously, Josh is an amazing student. He’s always loved learning and been a really good self-learner (something I really admire about him). He worked really hard his whole time at BYU, got great grades, impressed his professors, and graduated with two great degrees. And – even more impressive – a great job! Josh is now working for a company called Pariveda Solutions, at their Denver office. It’s a great company that we’re excited to be part of. And it’s the same company Josh interned for two summers ago.

So after graduation, we had about a week to pack up our house. My mom had helped us start when she was in town for graduation, but Josh and I had the bulk of it to do ourselves. But we’re both pretty organized people. I like making lists and planning in advance. We wrote down each packing task we had to do on our wipe-off board and divided them up into days, then checked things off as we got them done. We even were a day ahead of schedule. But, holy cow, moving kicked my trash! It was hard! Actually getting out of Provo and taking care of all the last-minute things (sooo glad we loaded the truck a day early) was rough. And not just the packing and the loading, but the long long drive and the unloading and moving in…that’s a lot of work! Here’s some things I learned from moving:

  • Ask for help! I wish we had had more help, especially with packing (and mostly babysitting Carson). (Thank you, thank you to Caleb, Sam, Zach, Luke, Heather, Melanie, and everyone else who did help!) Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help…I never want to be the one who has to ask. I never want to inconvenience anyone. Why is it that we’re so reluctant to ask for help sometimes?
  • We took our time loading. Sam and Caleb came over and helped load the van like a game of Tetris. It was great. I wish we had taken as much time and brainpower to unload, though. We were so eager to get everything out of the truck and into the house. And we were working against a deadline. It’s not like we dumped everything into the front room – we put a little thought into it – but I just wish Josh and I would have decided more in advance where we wanted everything to go. But maybe a little reorganization as you move in is unavoidable?
  • Be sure to take care of myself physically and spiritually during a move. It’s easy to pull late nights, eat too much fast food, and overdo it with lifting stuff when you move. But especially with a little one to take care of, I think I overdid it. Josh, Carson, and I all got colds after the big move.
What’s your moving advice? Since we’re just renting, it’s pretty much a guarantee that our family will be moving someday in the future (though let’s really just not think about that right now). How do you make moves go smoother, especially with young kids?
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Well, after we drove to Josh’s parents’ house in Denver, we stayed with them for a few days while we looked for a rental house. We received lots of blessings and felt very grateful to find an amazing little house that we were able to move into in just a few days. We love it! More pictures and descriptions to come later.

After a week of unpacking, moving in, and (thank goodness) a little bit of relaxation, we all flew to Texas – Josh to Dallas, where Pariveda’s headquarters are located, for a two-week work training; and me and Carson to Houston to stay with my family.

This past weekend was halfway through the two week training, and Josh was able to come down to Houston to see us, yay! It was a  blast. Now Josh is back in Dallas and Carson and I are still here and grandma and grandpa’s, but on Friday we’ll all fly back to our new home together. I miss Josh a lot, but Carson and I are having a very fun and relaxing time here.

So that’s our big catch-up post on life! I’ll try to post more pictures soon, but here’s a little bit of everything that’s happened lately. (Click a picture to see the caption.) Hope you’re all doing well!

Jackson Hole Trip

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Once upon a time last month before Carson was born, we went on an awesome family vacation with the Lymans to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a ton of fun! Highlights include seeing Jenny Lake, hiking up to a very cool waterfall, eating some good barbecue, seeing cousins, watching the Harry Potter marathon on TV, swimming at the hotel pool, and visiting shops in town. Oh, and seeing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at this historic theater. It was a blast!

4th of July Weekend, Part 2

Holidays, Vacations, , ,

So ready to hear about Part 2 of our vacation over the 4th of July? (See Part 1 first.) Part 2 actually consisted mostly of driving. After celebrating the family reunion in Show Low, we woke up the next day and drove and drove and drove towards our destination of Roswell, New Mexico, where our hotel was. We were all very excited to visit Roswell, the town of legendary UFO fame, because it just so happens that the weekend we were there was same weekend as the international UFO festival. Wow.

Brenn, Shelby, Jennie, and Cole had spent most of the weekend writing “we come in peace” and “aliens welcome” on the side of the van and planning out alien costumes to mingle with the alien fanatics. And we watched Contact the night before to prepare for any alien encounters (we were going to watch Signs, but Paige’s mom doesn’t like scary movies. And it turns out that Contact, which is good but not quite as gripping, put everyone but us to sleep.) But we were really glad we watched Contact, because when we were driving the next day, guess what we just happened to drive by? Yep, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, featured on the movie as a tool to hear extra-terrestrial signals. (Wouldn’t it be cool if everything had a name as fitting as the VLA?)

We got to stop, take pictures, and walk around, and it was pretty cool.

When we did roll into Roswell that night, it turned out most of the alien festivities were over, but we did enjoy seeing tons of alien and UFO paraphernalia throughout the town. All the siblings bought UFO t-shirts the next morning on our way out.

So after another day of travel, we arrived back at Dallas and said goodbye to the Ellsworths. All in all, a way fun (though pretty quirky) family vacation.

The Enemy

4th of July Weekend, Part 1

Holidays, Vacations, , ,

Wow, we’re kind of behind in our blogging…that’s thanks to our transient lifestyle (we moved from that little hotel room into a three-bedroom, three-bath house with a pool to housesit for a very nice family on vacation) and thanks to a busy and fantastic week that Paige spent in Utah for a work conference.

Anyway, almost a month ago now we got to spend a great time with Paige’s family over the Fourth of July. For Part 1 of our adventure, on Friday we flew from the Dallas airport to Albuquerque, where we met up with my family, who were driving on their way from their Colorado road trip in the big white van (affectionately called the Barge). They picked us up and we drove late into the night to Show Low, Arizona, where many years ago Edmund Lovell Ellsworth, a pioneer who crossed the plains, settled with his family. Now the Ellsworth family has a huge family reunion every ten years, and this was the year.

So after sleeping in on Saturday, we spent the day seeing cousins and aunts and uncles and meeting more distant relatives. We played some fun outdoor games with the younger cousins and played a great game of ultimate frisbee with the older cousins and Uncle Keen and Aunt Sunny.

Sadly, we didn’t get to watch fireworks at the end of the day because we were all so wiped out! After the barbecue, we headed back to the hotel, sunburned and tired, and ate watermelon and watched Contact in preparation for Part 2 of the vacation, so stay tuned!

And enjoy some pictures!